


A House Can Be a Home

by retrobaby



Category: The Young Ones (TV 1982)
Genre: M/M, Sorry Neil
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-11 22:53:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5644795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/retrobaby/pseuds/retrobaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Has anyone ever thought about Vyv/Mike/Rick OT3? Just me?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a big ass sucker for Christopher Ryan but who can resist the draw of this fandom's principle pairing?

Everything in the house was quiet, even though it wasn't late. Rick cracked his neck and stood up, turning off lights as he moved towards the master bedroom - what Mike liked to call his room - and shaking his head over the waste of electricity. Neil’s door was open, empty inside, but Mike’s was closed but for a crack. Rick eased it open. Mike was lying in the bed, in sweatpants and a t-shirt that looked older than he was, reading glasses on but book down. He looked up, grinning at Rick and putting a finger up to his lips.

The warning wasn't wholly necessary - Rick saw that Vyvyan was out like a light, bare back spread across Mike's belly, eyes closed, half-clad in the sheets. The box he carried his junk around in lay on the floor by the bed, and his vest and boots were thrown haphazardly across a chair, teetering at the edge, threatening to fall. Rick leaned over and picked the boots up, setting them on the ground. Then he shoved his hands into his pockets and hovered at the end of the bed.

"When did he get in?"

"About an hour ago. He walked," Mike said, and Rick wondered if he was even aware of the way his fingers drifted lazily over Vyvyan's back. The skin would be warm, there - Vyvyan was always warm, when he was in bed. "I called for you."

"Couldn’t hear you," Rick said. "How is he?"

Mike made a face. "Pretty much how you’d expect, I guess. Like a kid again. Looked like hell - I'd bet five quid they didn’t share more than ten calmly spoken words."

Rick nodded. Vyvyan hadn’t particularly been looking forward to visiting his mum, especially coming so close to the holidays, but if he didn’t make the effort then she wouldn’t. He was still vaguely deluded they had some kind of relationship.

"Um," Rick said, looking at the bed, and the way the two of them were tucked into it, comfortable and relaxed. "I think, maybe, I'll go downstairs again and - "

Mike frowned. "Oh, yeah? You look kind of tuckered out. I was waiting up for you so we could - "

"I, um," Rick said. "I wasn’t really finished, I just came up to check and - "

"Rick," Vyvyan's rasp emerged, even though he didn't open his eyes. "Shut up, take your clothes off, and come to bed, okay? Jesus," he added, turning his head over on Mike's stomach. "The two of you yakking is keeping me awake and I'm fucking tired.”

"Pushy little bastard," Mike said, fondly, and Vyvyan lifted up a hand and flipped him off.

Grinning, Rick peeled out of his shirt and jeans and socks and climbed into the bed, re-settling the covers around him. Vyvyan shifted so that he was right in the middle of the bed, half on Mike, half on Rick.

"Better?" Rick asked, kissing Vyvyan's temple. He _was_ warm, just on the edge of being feverish, and Rick knew that it was the exhaustion that made his skin so hot.

"Be better when you let me sleep," Vyvyan mumbled, but he pillowed his head on Rick's chest, and was breathing evenly before Rick could think of a suitable response.

Mike turned over, kissed Rick on the mouth, and clicked off the bedside lamp.

Rick listened to both of them breathe for a long time before tiredness caught up to him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so a bit sadder than I was expecting.

Rick woke up in the morning disoriented because he was alone in the bed. For a moment, he couldn’t place himself, but then he saw the ties and sunglasses and leaned back, thinking right room just wrong quantity. It was rare that he woke up without one or both of the other two snoring over him.

He got up, yawning, stretched, and emerged from the bedroom.

It didn't take long to find people; Vyvyan was in the kitchen, standing in his underwear in front of the stove, trying to toast old bread in a pan.

"Morning," Rick yawned, opening the fridge and immediately closing it again. Maybe, if he was nice, he could scrounge a cup of tea out of Vyvyan’s apparent good will.

"Afternoon," Vyvyan corrected him. He picked up the toast, sniffed it, flipped it and slapped it back down in the pan. "It's almost two."

"Oh," Rick said. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

Vyvyan grinned at him. "You've obviously never tried to wake you up, babe. _Not_ a good idea. You're meaner than me first thing in the morning."

"That’s not true.”

"It is," Mike said, walking into the room with a basket of laundry. "Alright, I've encountered all of one pair of underwear in your box and found the rest of your clothes from the cupboard. Anything else you want washed?”

"You're going to the laundrette?" Rick asked.

"Not only that, he's taking _my_ laundry," Vyvyan said, smugly.

"He's making breakfast," Mike protested, pointing at Vyvyan.

"I bribed him," Vyvyan smirked, and Mike flushed a little, holding one of Vyvyan’s shirts to his chest. "I'm pretty sure that's it," Vyvyan added, thinking it over, and said, "You want toast?"

"You know it, baby," Mike said, and went off to presumably gather another pile.

"Here," Vyvyan said, taking the toast out of the pan and balancing it on a mug. He handed it to Rick. "No plates. You have this one, and I'll make another for him."

"Thanks," Rick said, taking the mug from Vyvyan. He stood there for a moment without looking at the toast.

"What?" Vyvyan asked, sniffing a new piece of bread.

"Nothing," Rick said.

Vyvyan raised an eyebrow at him, and flicked into the pan.

"This is kind of weird," Rick said, finally.

Vyvyan grinned. "Why? Because Mike and I are acting like a couple of floozy housewives?"

"Yeah," Rick said. "I feel like I should vacuum, or something. I'm not pulling my weight."

"We don’t have a vacuum," Vyvyan said, pushing him towards the table. "Anymore."

Rick smiled and took his breakfast-lunch-barelyameal to the table. Mike came in a few minutes later and Vyvyan brought more toast, and a dirty old teapot.

"It's lucky for the two of you I can cook," Vyvyan said. "Although, you know, it doesn't look like you've been starving yourself since I've been gone." He took a poke at Mike's stomach, laughing when Mike swatted him away.

"I’ve got contact," Mike said, crunching down.

"Save some scraps every once in a while," Vyvyan said. "It's all I ask. Cheaper than funeral costs."

"Hey, that’s not my place," Mike said.

"What? You think you’re the male patriarch and that makes you better?" Vyvyan pointed a butter knife at Mike. "You're a male chauvinist."

"I’m doing your laundry!"

"Because I bribed you with a blow-job and promised you breakfast," Vyvyan said. He grinned at Rick. "You should have seen it. I was _this_ close to getting him to agree to wash the sheets. If he had a little more stamina - "

Mike immediately protested, and Rick just shook his head, letting them bicker like an old married couple. It was the way that they interacted, most of the time - unless they were naked and having sex.

Finally, Vyvyan took the butter knife out of Mike's hand, hauled him onto his lap, and kissed him, thus effectively ending the 'discussion.'

"You don't play fair," Mike complained, but he had his arms looped around Vyvyan's neck, and he didn't look particularly unhappy to have 'lost' their argument.

"I never said anything about being fair," Vyvyan shrugged. "I just want to win."

Mike extricated himself from Vyvyan’s grasp, sat down at his own place again and swiped up some crumbs with his thumb. "So what's on the agenda for today?" he asked.

"Bed," Vyvyan grinned.

"All day?"

"Yup. Tomorrow you can think about doing something useful, but today - you're all mine, and you get to remind me how crazy you are about me."

Mike grinned. "I think I can go along with that."

"What about you, Rick?" Vyvyan asked, casually, as Rick had gone quiet. "Are you free to put the three back in this threesome?"

"I, um," Rick started, looking down at his plate. "I have some uni work at home, but I'm thinking maybe I'll just go back to the library. You know – exams coming up. I need to pass at least some and this way I might have a chance. Fewer distractions." He shrugged.

Mike frowned. "But you've been nuts for the last week," he said. "All you've been able to talk about is - " He shut up when Rick threw him a pointed glance.

"Is what?" Vyvyan asked. His tone was light, but there was something underlying it, and Mike noticed it immediately when Vyvyan threw Rick a shrewd glance.

"How much he missed you," Mike said. He looked at Rick, too, but Rick wasn't looking anywhere but down. "How glad he was going to be when you finally got back."

"So that's all changed now?" Vyvyan asked. "The dream of me was better than the reality? Maybe I should have gone straight to my room last night instead of assuming you’d be happy to see me. That was presuming a whole lot, after all, even though our personal space barely exists anymore."

"We did move your bed into my room," Mike said, looking at Rick. "We didn't really ask - "

"It's not that," Rick said, sharply. "No. You - _you_ should spend the day together."

"I know this isn't about him," Vyvyan said, cocking his thumb in Mike's direction. Mike, caught sitting in between the two of them, was looking back and forth, helplessly. "So, what is it?"

"Vyvyan," Rick started.

"What is it?" Vyvyan asked again, interrupting him. "What is this thing? What happened to you last night? You came in, and it was like - fuck, Rick, it was like you didn't belong there, or something."

"What?" Mike asked.

"Maybe I don't belong here," Rick said. He'd looked up, was now looking directly at Vyvyan.

"This is our kitchen," Mike said.

"Not here," Rick said, frustrated, waving his arms around, as if to indicate the _house_ that they were in. "Here," he said, and made a smaller gesture, one that encompassed only encompassed the three of them. "Maybe I don't belong here."

"But - " Mike said. "Wait. This is because of me, isn't it?"

"No," Rick said, and Vyvyan said it at exactly the same time, in the same sharp tone of voice.

"No," Vyvyan said, again, less harshly, and this time he looked at Mike. "No, it doesn't have anything to do with you. Not really. It doesn't even really have anything to do with me, either. This is about Rick, and what Rick thinks he needs." He pushed his half-eaten breakfast away, and rested his hands on the table in front of him. "You remember that first night between us?"

Rick nodded his head without speaking.

"Yeah, I know you do. I know you remember it just the same way that I do, too. You know what I remember most about that night? I remember being with someone so alone I thought he was going to devour me whole, just to fill up the empty places inside." Out of the corner of his eye, Vyvyan saw Mike wince, but he didn't pay attention to that, too intent on Rick, on not letting him break the eye-contact, because if he did that, somehow, he might just disappear. "That person isn't here anymore. He's been gone for a long time. And, you know, I thought at the time that you were alone because no one could really see you - and maybe that was part of it. But I'm beginning to think that part of the reason that you were so alone was because that's where you put yourself."

"Your dad," Mike said, suddenly.

"What?"

"Your dad," Mike repeated. "You think about him so much you don’t even know who you are, and no one else can figure you out because of it. You don’t let anyone take you seriously.”

"Yes I do," Rick said.

"You don’t," Mike said. "Maybe, you know, you don't realize it. And, yeah, it _is_ us, because it's easier not to push you and we think that’s fine. We tell ourselves it's good like that, but maybe it's just easier. It _was_ easier," he corrected himself. "It was easier before I stopped just being around you and starting actually being in _love_ with you." Rick looked at him, stricken, and Mike realized. "You didn't know that. How could you not know that?"

"I don't know," Rick said, and didn't say anything else.

"I think," Vyvyan said. "I'm going to go back to bed. I'm really tired, all of a sudden. Stuff catching up with me, I guess." He stood up, and stopped at Mike's chair, kissing him as he said, "Thanks for doing my laundry."

"Uh, sure," Mike said, frowning when Vyvyan left the room without saying anything else. He sat there for a minute. "Rick?"

Rick was looking down at his hands, clenched tightly in his lap.

"I'm going to, um, go to the laundrette," Mike said, standing awkwardly. ‘I have some of your stuff in the mix as well.”

Rick nodded.

"You'd tell me, right? If it was me?" Mike asked.

"It's not you," Rick said.

"Okay."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this I realized it actually couldn't be more OOC if I tried. Damn those boys for being so clean in my head!

Vyvyan was in bed, but Rick could tell that he wasn't sleeping, by the way that his body was lying there - tense and taut on his stomach, facing away from the door - and from the way that he was breathing. Or, not breathing, really, shallow and inaudible.

"Vyvyan," Rick said, softly. There was no answer. He walked over to the bed and sat down, and reached out a hand, putting it on Vyvyan's bare shoulder. He could feel the clench of knotted muscle under the skin. "I did the dishes. Well, two."

Vyvyan let out a breath, half-laughter, and turned over. There wasn't quite a smile on his face. "Tell me what's going on, okay?" he said.

"I don't know - "

"No," Vyvyan said. "No. I think we got used to not having to tell each other things, because we just knew. And now - I don't know, Rick." He shook his head. "Maybe it _is_ Mike. Is it him?"

"I don't - " Rick started, and then sighed, pulling his feet up on the bed and looking down at his hands. "It's not Mike. And, it is Mike."

"That makes sense."

Rick grinned, wryly. "I just. I see you together, and you and he are so - _good_ together. You fit together, since, like, always. And I just - "

"You're jealous."

"I'm not."

"You are," Vyvyan said, grinning. "You're jealous. Of Mike Thecoolperson. You're going to make his fucking week."

"I'm really not," Rick insisted. "I just. You don't know what you two look like together, and - "

"Well, no," Vyvyan said. "Since I can't _see_ us together. But, this little triangle thing isn't a competition, you know. I mean, don't you think that I think about you two being together when I’m not here – in the same faculty, even - and think, well, that's them. Together all the time, and what am I here for, again? Variety, maybe." He shrugged.

"But Mike is in love with you," Rick said.

"Well, he's washing my underwear," Vyvyan said. "If that isn't love - "

"No, I'm serious," Rick said.

"I know. And I know he is, because he doesn't hide anything, ever." Vyvyan grinned, suddenly. "He tries, but he completely sucks at it."

"Yeah," Rick laughed. "He does."

"So, you and me," Vyvyan said, trailing a finger up the inside of Rick's forearm. "I don't want to fuck this up."

"You're not," Rick said.

"You have to tell me what to do, because I don't know anymore, okay? I think it was easier when we thought we were just having sex, and that it didn't really matter."

"It was," Rick nodded. "Do you ever wish we could go back to that?"

"Sometimes, yeah," Vyvyan said, honestly. "You know, I'm not going to apologize for liking the sex that we have. But if you think that's the only reason that I'm here - " Vyvyan shook his head. "There are so many other places I could have ended up but you know what? I’m here. I don’t _want_ to not be here. So maybe that's my declaration for the night, you know?"

"Okay," Rick nodded.

"Except, okay." Vyvyan put a hand on the back of Rick's neck and pulled him forward, until their foreheads were touching. "I love you."

"I know," Rick said, but he was smiling.

"And we're okay?"

"Uhhuh."

"Okay." Vyvyan turned to look at some movement in the doorway, and there was Mike, with the laundry bag in his arms. Vyvyan laughed. "If the girlies could see you now. Why the hell do we not have a camera?"

"Because we’re poor and god is good," Mike said. "Um. Is this - are we all okay, now?"

"Yeah," Rick said, shifting around on the bed. "Except, you know, there's an empty spot here, and - "

"Say no more," Mike said, and dumped the laundry down, leaping into the bed. He bounced a couple of times, and Rick laughed.

"You know, I'm scared," Vyvyan said. "Out of the three of us, _Mike_ is the most well-adjusted."

"That is scary," Rick agreed.

"Hey!" Mike said.

"Aw," Vyvyan said, licking Mike's neck. 

"He's cute when he pouts," Rick said.

"I am?" Mike asked.

"Very cute."

"Cool."

Vyvyan yawned hugely. "Shit. I _am_ tired. You know you’re buggered when you haven't had sex in ten days and you're _still_ too tired to fuck either one of your boyfriends."

"Go to sleep, then," Rick said, lying back on the bed. "We can have sex later."

Vyvyan looked at him, then manhandled Mike into lying down, too, and settled himself in between them. "Okay," he said. "That's better."


End file.
